"Rebuilding the Lives of the Wrongfully Convicted"

Joseph Amrine

Then: In 1985, While Joseph Amrine was serving a fifteen-year sentence for burglary and robbery, fellow inmate Gary Barber was fatally stabbed in the same room where Amrine was playing poker. After interrogations were made, Amrine was charged with the murder, based entirely on testimonies from two other inmates. All other evidence and testimony suggested he was innocent. A year later, Amrine was convicted and sentenced to death, a tactic his largely incompetent, state-assigned lawyer had pursued, claiming it would get the case noticed.

After years of appeals, Amrine was released when the state failed to provide DNA evidence from Amrine's pants (blood he claimed has been there for months before the murder). Amrine was released just days before his scheduled execution. The Public Interest Litigation Clinic in Kansas City obtained a two-year grant that pays Amrine $30,000 a year to talk about his experience. He is presently suing the officers who investigated his case.